Nastase concedes defeat in Romanian election run-off

Prime Minister Adrian Nastase today said he had conceded defeat in Romania’s presidential run-off in a telephone call to opponent Traian Basescu, whom he called “the future president of Romania”.

Basescu’s victory dealt a major blow to the successors of Romania’s communists, who have governed for most of the period since the 1989 revolution.

“It is the decision of the Romanian people and I respect it,” Nastase said. “I congratulate Basescu” and have congratulated him personally on the phone today. “Basescu is the future president of Romania.”

Basescu held a decisive lead in Romania’s presidential runoff with less than 2 % of the ballots remaining to be counted, according to official partial results released today.

With 98.76 % of the ballots counted, Basescu had 51.23 % of the vote, compared with Prime Minister Adrian Nastase’s 48.77.